Monday, April 23, 2012

SPRING FEVER: FAG SCHOOL #4 & BURN COLLECTOR #16

I'll be honest: late winter/early spring has been ROUGH and I've just been trying to ride this crazy-wave, without being completely sucked into the insanity. My pops, who has been seriously ill for many years now, is entering the final stages of his life- as one can expect, it's been a sad and hard process. I've gotten a lot of quality time in with him and am making peace/trying to accept the inevitable, but honestly, there's definitely been those moments where I've thought I might crumble. My poor dad- he's seriously gone through some hard-ass-shit! Even in the worst times though, this man can rally and to this day, he continues to inspire me with his dedication to life, humanity, and to always seeking/exploring/desiring more knowledge, even despite his failing health. An old badass, he is, without a fucking doubt.

That being said, there's nothing like a little work, particularly creative work, to keep you on point. Keep you fresh, inspired, still seeking the light, even when you feel like a gigantic POS. Working with Al and Brontez these past few months have helped to keep me going, kept my brain sharp, and they both deserve big props for being so extremely patient and understanding of all that's been going on. I've had to skip town for family emergencies and then both of my Risographs broke. Printing was delayed, emergency packages sent out with photocopied versions of the publications, endless printing sessions, collating parties with Al... I was feeling this past Mercury in retrograde. It's been a wildly frustrating time, particularly because I've just wanted these publications to exist in a tangible format and every obstacle has popped up. BUT! We're over the hump now, everything is printed and ready to be out in the world, so... many thanks to them, as well as my friends, sweet partner, and family, for helping me through such difficult times and for being so supportive.

Stay safe, get outside and enjoy the weather, and don't forget be good to one another-

XOXO,

Caroline Paquita

P.S. As usual, there's always projects in the works. If all goes as scheduled, expect for The Lesbian Lexicon, Womanimalistic #3, and the 2012 Paquita Calendar to be released in the fall. In the interim, you can find me in Chicago for CAKE in June- with MIKE TAYLOR!!!

Brontez is back with this new split zine- with himself! On tour with Sister Spit, he’s blowing minds across the nation with his awesome styles, calling it as he sees it, making you laugh, cry, and everything in between.

"Most just live what they see. They experience it all, or not, but they dare not say it, and they remain out-of-sync. In his performances, multi-hyphenate artist Brontez Purnell sees things that rarely anyone identifies. And when he says it, the audience is left breathless, shocked by mirrors of recognition and familiarity.Purnell produced his first zine, “Schlepp Fanzine,” from his childhood home in Alabama. Since then, he moved to Tennessee and then to California to bring his original voice to music, dance, and the written word. In Oakland, he produced his next zine, Fag School, filled with filth, awe, and wonder. Because of his magnetic presence and lurid but honest portrayals of punk rock-infused queer life, Purnell has become somewhat of a star on the literary-reading circuit. His writing has appeared in Maximum Rock’N’Roll, the online edition of Jigsaw, and Mary: Literary. He also can be seen bringing his combination of truth-telling and heart to his punk rock band, The Younger Lovers.Purnell is not queercore – he is Brontez. Through all of his evolving art, he is in the world as himself. All of his art is unflinching and candid about the unspoken known: “Did he just say that?” – yes, he did, and he meant it, unselfconsciously, and he said it with a sweet touch and a relaxed empathy."

Burn Collector #16 (April 2012) is sub-titled “Music and Mania,” and examines the intersection between creativity and losing your marbles. Street musicians, arena rock, classical vs. computers, Little Richard vs. Elvis, and a wide variety of other topics are discussed as Burian contends that “the modern musician is essentially a maniac, living on a delusional dream, whose basic project– putting forth a unique voice into the general din and calamity of the oversaturated information age– has so little chance of success as to make it an act of ultimate, incredible optimism.” The zine contains comics, essays, reviews, and interviews with musician Tim Remis and radical mental health activist Sascha DuBrul.

Al Burian is the author of the long-running personal zine Burn Collector. His work has garnered praise from such legitimate institutions as the Utne Reader and McSweeneys Best Nonrequired Reading. Beginning in the mid-nineties, Burian has distributed his work through the tight-knit network of the DIY punk music/art scene. He has published 16 issues of the zine, two anthologies, and a book of comics. He has been doing reading/speaking performances since the year 2000.

Born 1971 in New Hampshire (state motto: “live free or die”); grew up in North Carolina (state motto: “to be and not to seem”); was an iconoclastic character at an early age. In his early twenties he began touring incessantly with bands, simultaneously producing small-run photocopied pamphlets (“zines”). He has published two collections of his zine output, Burn Collector (2000) and Natural Disaster (2007), as well as a book of comics, Things Are Meaning Less (2003). He lives in Berlin.

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About Me

PEGACORN PRESS is a queer, feminist, total-art-freaker publishing house that specializes in small-run art books, comics, and zines. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, it's run by visual artist/musician, Caroline Paquita. (PLEASE NOTE: PEGACORN PRESS DOES NOT TAKE PRINT JOBS! You can find Riso folks who do via: http://issue-press.com/atlas)